The Rook's Tale
by axleonex
Summary: Rook, leader of the Red Hand, has a conversation with Lisa shortly after capturing a dangerous criminal. One-shot.


Author's note: I was trying to write a sequel to "Tattletale Gets Laid", but I honestly can't do it. Matthew's story is done. And if I continued, it would be more romanced focused than humor focused, and I can't tolerate that. So here's a short story I came up with that takes place six months after Lisa meeting Matthew. If I continue it, it'll be a buddy cop series with Rook and Tattletale.

XXX

Tattletale took another glass of champagne. It didn't feel as celebratory as she had hoped for. She'd spend weeks looking for the serial killer of Brockton Bay, she had thought victory would've felt less bitter.

Rook sat across from her. They were in her personal lounge, with not much more to agree on now that the investigation was complete. Rook drank straight from the bottle. He'd lost the bet, so he had to give up the best wine he had. "You're just a teenager, aren't you?" Rook spoke aloud.

Tattletale didn't answer. Rook went on, "I was right the first time. When we met, I guessed your age based on Taylor's age. You were her best friend, but you never showed it."

"I can't believe you're younger than me," Tattletale said with a smirk. "You talked so bad about the Undersiders being teenagers, but you're the youngest one in your group."

Rook opened his mouth, but no words came out. Lisa's powers filled in the blanks;

 _Noticed that I'm avoiding the Taylor statement_

"You don't talk about Taylor," Rook said in a low tone. Rook's age almost looked to be about nineteen or twenty, but in spite of his large body figure, he was sixteen, with a level of intelligence that could only be matched by Taylor.

"There's not much to talk about," Lisa said, waving her wine cup.

Rook's costume was a checkered suit. It looked like a formal suit, with only a domino mask on his face to distinguish that he was a cape. It was ironic that his mask could mirror Tattletale's, he'd also made a few snide comments about it when they'd first met. "Here's a riddle," Rook said. Rook had the tendancey to speak in poetry. Or allegories, or analogies. He had a habit of having a 'character' that went his cape. "What's the difference between a sociopath, and a Buddhist monk?"

Tattletale didn't want to answer. She already knew he was referring her as a sociopath.

Rook pressed the question, "if Buddhist monks preach detachment, and sociopaths are naturally detached, what's the difference?"

"I don't know."

"Buddhists have hearts, and sociopaths don't."

Tattletale yawned. There it was, the poetry again. At this point in their lives, the things Rook said didn't phase her.

Rook continued, "we've been chasing this murderer for weeks, and every victim you saw, you were just blank. Not just blank, but indifferent standing next to a dead body. No remorse, no pain, just blind ambition to find the bad guy..."

"I could say the same about you."

Rook shook his head. He considered himself vastly different from Lisa. Whereas Lisa went out of her way to sugar coat the morbid truth, Rook took it in its entirety. "The difference between Buddhist monks, and sociopaths," Rook continued, "is that the buddhist monks let emotions come in and out in its entirety. They feel love and pain in the moment, and let it pass just as it came. The sociopaths form a stone wall around their hearts. A barrier from emotions, never allowing anything to enter, and being empty as a result."

"What?" Tattletale shrugged, "so me not freaking out over murders makes me a sociopath?"

"When was the last time you looked in a mirror?" Rook's words came out harsher than he expected, but he pressed on. "When Taylor left, did you even feel a loss?"

 _XXX_

 **One Day earlier**

A man wearing a clown makeup sat in the back of their police vehicle. He hummed a tune while Rook and Tattletale sat in the front seat. Tattletale glanced at him from the passenger seat. "Why'd you do it?"

The clown man smiled wider. He shook his handcuffs, and continued humming.

"You don't have any history of abuse, you have no powers, yet you went on a murder streak and killed fourteen strangers. What made you snap? You were middle class American before, _and_ after the Leviathan attack... What changed?"

"Nothing," the man said in an easy change of tone. "Nothing changed."

"Question," Rook interrupted. "Why wear clown makeup instead of a mask? If you were imitating capes, wouldn't a mask have been better?"

"The Lucifer affect."

"Ah," Rook spoke, in a tone that seemed like he was enjoying himself. "Put on a mask to hide yourself from others, and it becomes easier act separate from the empathy of others."

Tattletale rolled her eyes, and leaned back onto the seat and faced her eyes forward.

"I wear it for you," the clown man said. "Capes, trying so hard to separate themselves from people. But here I am, to remind them, that we're all the same."

"I doubt that," Tattletale said. "I was there to see all of your victims. Each of them were chosen randomly and impossible to create a connection from one another. You didn't even have purpose in killing. Capes range from bad to crazy, but even capes have more rationale than you."

"Then why didn't you flinch?" The handcuffed man asked.

"Excuse me?"

"When you found me, surrounded by a dozen dead people, you didn't flinch, didn't you?" She raised an eyebrow. He said, "it's because you lost something. Over time, the empathy you had, it went away. Just to cope with who I am. You're numb now, because of me. You're welcome."

Tattletale stuck her tongue out, "I was numb way before you came into the picture."

XXX

 **Present:**

"I had to let go," Tattletale answered him. "I'm not going to give myself time to dwell. I've had all the time in the world to dwell, and I know that it's just a vicious cycle that leads to nowhere."

Rook shook his head, "do you even miss her?"

 _I can't afford to,_ she almost said. Tattletale answered, "somewhere down the line, you realize that everyone goes away eventually, so it hurts less not to get close to people. Taylor leaving proved that."

"It's not exclusive. You can cherish someone immensely, and not let the goodbyes hurt you."

Lisa thought back on Reggie, recalling how she'd wished she'd spend more time with him. Rook stood up from his seat, "I think it's worth a try. Because we both know hiding behind a wall dwindles hearts."

He was referring to his own trigger, which also could've applied to her's. Rook finished the last of the champagne, and headed out. As a final farewell he said, "it's worth a try, we might like it."

Tattletale sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."


End file.
